Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning at each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting machines. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features, and enhancements available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Therefore, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play through enhanced entertainment value to the player.
One concept that has been successfully employed to enhance the entertainment value of a game is the concept of a “secondary” or “bonus” game that may be played in conjunction with a “basic” game. The bonus game may comprise any type of game, either similar to or completely different from the basic game, which is entered upon the occurrence of a selected event or outcome in the basic game. Generally, bonus games provide a greater expectation of winning than the basic game and may also be accompanied with more attractive or unusual video displays and/or audio. Bonus games may additionally award players with “progressive jackpot” awards that are funded, at least in part, by a percentage of coin-in from the gaming machine or a plurality of participating gaming machines. Because the bonus game concept offers tremendous advantages in player appeal and excitement relative to other known games, and because such games are attractive to both players and operators, there is a continuing need to develop gaming systems with new types of bonus games to satisfy the demands of players and operators.
From time to time, it may be desirable to change or reconfigure the character, design, theme, or rationale of the games implemented in the gaming machines, in order to more closely match trends or seasonal variation in customer interest, to accommodate promotional relationships, or for consistency with themes or events in entertainment, sports, news, and the like. Gaming machines that employ a fixed set of display symbols, such as slot machines employing an electro-mechanical reel display, are more difficult to reconfigure than machines employing completely electronic displays, and there have heretofore been limited options for such reconfiguration. The entire gaming machine could be replaced with a new machine embodying a different game. Alternatively, the machine could be retrofitted, in situ, with new display equipment, such as new reels or new reel strips, containing the display symbols needed for a different game. Each of these options is costly, time-consuming, and disruptive of other activities on the gaming floor. For example, changing reels or reel strips may take 10 minutes per gaming machine, and changing reels or reel strips for a bank of gaming machines could take an hour or more. This requires expensive craft labor, and machines do not earn revenue for the operator while being serviced. Accordingly, the need exists for methods and apparatus for reconfiguring gaming machines having a fixed set of display symbols, so as to present to the player a different game, game theme, or game episode, while minimizing the aforementioned disadvantages of existing reconfiguration methods.